Big claims this week, some of which may not be deserved

Industry news roundup: week ended 12 Aug 2013:

Usually when I hear of the injured leaving court with massive personal injury compensation awards, I’m happy – but sometimes it seems a bit suspect.

Most of the time, it’s comforting to read about large personal injury compensation claims being awarded to injured parties. For instance, there was one young man, who was left with massive brain injuries after he was struck by a car whilst on his bicycle several years ago, who received some £5.3 million for his pain and suffering, and that made me just incredibly happy to know that the poor bloke’s medical needs would be sorted for the rest of his life.

Believe it or not, the 24 year old man, who had the near-fatal accident at the age of 16, was found to be 50 per cent responsible for the road traffic accident! Sadly he wasn’t wearing a helmet and he hadn’t fitted his bicycle with any lights, which unfortunately contributed to the accident happening in the first place; still, it takes two to tango as the saying goes, and even though he ‘only’ got 50 per cent of what he would have received otherwise in compensation, the poor bloke should at least be all right with a cool £5 million, right?

Of course, not every story is as satisfying – at least not to me. In fact sometimes I’m left incensed and fuming after reading a news story – which is exactly how I felt after one NHS executive has walked away with not just a £24,000 a year pension but also a lump sum payment of £370,000 simply because he was ‘too stressed’ by his position to continue working.

Apparently it’s a terribly difficult job overseeing an NHS hospital, what with the sitting around on your bum all day in a nice office and yelling at doctors who amputate the wrong limb or leave their surgical equipment inside people’s bodies after appendectomies. I swear this bloke had probably the easiest job in the world but it still gave him heart palpitations and left him passed out on the floor of his (most likely well-appointed) office, and for that he was given more money than he probably knows what to do with or even needs.

I’m sorry but I just can’t muster up much sympathy for the man, not with the state of the economy being what it is. I’m sure he wasn’t driving a 20-year-old Vauxhall Astra or something similar to and from his council housing whilst he was putting in all those hours at that hospital, you know?